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Hong Kong court convicts Stand News editors of sedition
A Hong Kong court convicted former Stand News editors Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam of conspiring to publish seditious material, under a colonial-era law, over articles the outlet had run before police raided its newsroom and it closed at…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government John Lee · Upheld by a court
United Kingdom detains journalist's partner under terrorism law and oversees destruction of Guardian hard drives holding Snowden files
British authorities detained David Miranda, partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, for nine hours at Heathrow Airport under anti-terrorism powers, and separately had Guardian staff destroy hard drives holding files leaked by Edwar…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government David Cameron · Upheld by a court
United States prosecutes former CIA officer John Kiriakou under the Espionage Act for identifying a covert colleague to a journalist
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who in 2007 was the first CIA officer to publicly describe the agency's waterboarding of a detainee, pleaded guilty to identifying a covert colleague to a journalist and was sentenced under the Espionage A…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Barack Obama · Upheld by a court
New York Times reporter Judith Miller jailed for refusing to name a confidential source in the Valerie Plame affair
A federal judge jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller for contempt after she refused to tell a grand jury who told her the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, part of a special counsel's investigation into the leak.
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government George W. Bush · Upheld by a court
Zimbabwe: the High Court refuses to accredit Daily News journalists under the media registration law
Zimbabwe's High Court ruled that Daily News journalists could not be accredited to work as reporters until their newspaper's publisher had itself been registered with the government's Media and Information Commission.
Credential control · Stage Punish · Head of government Robert Mugabe · Upheld by a court
United States: Espionage Act conviction of Samuel Loring Morison for leaking satellite photographs to Jane's Defence Weekly, 1985 to 1988
Naval intelligence analyst Samuel Loring Morison was convicted under the Espionage Act after he sent classified satellite photographs to a British defense publication in 1984. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit uphel…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Ronald Reagan · Upheld by a court
United States Supreme Court rules reporters have no privilege to refuse grand jury subpoenas
Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Paul Branzburg was subpoenaed by a Kentucky grand jury, a body that investigates possible crimes, after he wrote about drug users he had observed. The Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the First Amendment…
Surveillance and subpoenas · Stage Punish · Head of government Richard Nixon · Upheld by a court
United States: Supreme Court upholds Benjamin Gitlow's conviction under New York's Criminal Anarchy Law, 1925
The United States Supreme Court voted seven to two on June 8, 1925 to uphold the conviction of socialist publisher Benjamin Gitlow, who had been tried and sentenced to prison under New York's 1902 Criminal Anarchy Law for distributing 16,0…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Alfred E. Smith · Upheld by a court
United States convicts newspaper editor Jacob Frohwerk under the Espionage Act, June 1918
Jacob Frohwerk, an associate editor of the German language newspaper the Missouri Staats-Zeitung, was tried and convicted in June 1918 under the Espionage Act of 1917 for publishing articles opposing American participation in the First Wor…
Secrets and espionage laws · Stage Punish · Head of government Woodrow Wilson · Upheld by a court
United States convicts Mother Earth editor Emma Goldman of draft conspiracy and bars her magazine from the mail
Emma Goldman, editor of the anarchist magazine Mother Earth, was convicted with fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman of conspiring against the newly enacted Selective Draft Law and received the maximum two year sentence and a ten thousand do…
Detention and violence · Stage Punish · Head of government Woodrow Wilson · Upheld by a court
Philippines: United States colonial government's libel law is used to close the newspaper El Renacimiento
The United States colonial government in the Philippines enacted a criminal libel law in 1901 that Governor-General William Howard Taft defended by saying Filipinos were unused to the freedom of the press. The law was used in 1908 to convi…
Insult and defamation laws · Stage Punish · Head of government William Howard Taft · Upheld by a court